Summit registration is required to attend the reception following keynote—Register here

Mercy and Justice: Where Religion and Development Can Intersect

Adam Russell Taylor, Lead of the Faith Initiative—World Bank Group

Adam Russell Taylor currently serves as lead of the faith initiative at the World Bank Group. Taylor formerly served as vice president for advocacy at World Vision US, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to help them reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Taylor served as a White House fellow in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs and Public Engagement. He was formerly the senior political director at Sojourners where he was responsible for leading the organization’s advocacy, coalition building, and constituency outreach. He has also served as the executive director of Global Justice, an organization that educates and mobilizes students around global human rights and economic justice. Before co-founding Global Justice, he worked as an associate at the Harvard University Carr Center for Human Rights and as an urban fellow in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City.

Taylor is a graduate of Emory University, the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology. He is the author of Mobilizing Hope: Faith-Inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation. Taylor is ordained in the American Baptist church, is married to Sharee Mckenzie Taylor, and the proud father of his sons Joshua and Nathaniel.

GSL5 is grateful for the co-sponsorship of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame, in presenting this keynote address

Monday, April 16, 9:45-11:00 am ETND Conference Center Auditorium

This event is free and open to the public

Ensuring that Global Service-Learning Learning is an Ethical High Impact Practice

Dawn Michele Whitehead is senior director for global learning and curricular change in the Office of Integrative Liberal Learning and the Global Commons at AAC&U. Dr. Whitehead’s work focuses on advancing practices, strategies, and projects for integrative global learning across the undergraduate curriculum. Her work combines an emphasis on thematic local and international experiences to provide students with globalized learning opportunities throughout their educational experiences to prepare them to function and thrive in the modern world. Whitehead also collaborates across AAC&U to advance global learning.

Prior to joining AAC&U, Whitehead served as the director of curriculum internationalization with teaching responsibilities in the Global and International Studies Program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Whitehead was the faculty director for international service learning programs in Costa Rica, Ghana, Kenya, and Swaziland, and her research evolved from a focus on education and educators in Ghana to the impact of service learning on students and community partners. Whitehead also utilized interactive videoconferencing as a tool to infuse globalized experiences for students on campus. As a campus leader, Whitehead facilitated interdisciplinary campus initiatives and professional development around global learning, internationalizing the curriculum, and international service learning. Finally, Whitehead guided efforts to assess global learning for students engaged with both local and international communities and for students participating in classes on the IUPUI campus and abroad.

Whitehead earned her BA in history and Afro-American studies, her MS in international and comparative education, and her PhD in education policy studies with a concentration in African Studies and a minor in international and comparative education from Indiana University Bloomington. Her areas of expertise include civic engagement, education abroad, global learning, international and comparative education, international service learning, internationalization of the curriculum.

Plenary Panel Discussions—April 15, 16 & 17

Sunday, April 15, 6:45—8:00 pm ETMorris Inn Ballroom

Dinner Plenary Panel Discussion

Summit registration is required to attend the dinner plenary—Register here

Higher Education & Global Development: What’s the Intersection?

Drawing on their varied experiences working in global development – across multiple countries and sectors, in difference in organizations, scale, and approaches – leaders will “pull back the curtain” to share their own journeys. Through exploring their own learning, hopes, and misgivings about global development, they will raise tough questions about how we, as individuals and institutions, work to make the world a better place. Through a facilitated conversation, they will examine the intersection of institutions of higher education and global development initiatives, paying particular attention to the role of undergraduate education. Critically reflecting on their lived experience and the evolution of the field, they will consider possible contributions that universities can and do make to global development along with how to prepare our future global leaders. ​

Facilitated by Nora Pillard Reynolds, director of globalsl.org and Fellow for Ethical Global Learning—Haverford College and Rachel Tomas Morgan, Associate Director for International Engagement, Center for Social Concerns—University of Notre Dame

Plenary Panel Bios:

Jennifer Lentfer is a farm girl turned international aid worker turned…? She is the Director of Communications atThousand Currents, an international grassroots grantmaker, and is the creator of the blog, how-matters.org. She was named as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s “100 women to follow on Twitter”at @intldogooder.

Lentfer has worked with over 300 grassroots organizations in east and southern Africa over the past decade. She has served with Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services, American Red Cross, UNICEF, and Firelight Foundation, where she focused on organizational development and learning. Today she works to place community-driven initiatives and grassroots movements at the forefront of international aid, philanthropy, and social enterprise. It’s no wonder, given that her hometown of Bruning, Nebraska, USA has a population of just 248 people.

Sara Sievers joined the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs after serving as the founding executive director of Columbia University’s Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development and Harvard University’s Center for International Development.She also began the Developing Country Policy and Advocacy portfolio for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program, building the strategy and early funding streams for the foundation’s global health objectives.

Sievers’ work focuses primarily on achieving scale and impact in the lives of the poor through scaling evidence-based policy solutions in partnership with national governments. Most recently, this has led to a multi-year commitment working with the government of Nigeria to invest its debt relief proceeds in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, with particular emphasis on health, education, and water. She also has led partnerships across different schools at Columbia University, bringing new technologies in monitoring, evaluation, and impact-tracking aimed at improving governance and management of financial resources for the poor.

Sievers has written on a range of subjects, including national competitiveness (with Jeffrey Sachs, Wing Thye Woo, and Michael Porter), governance (with Shang-jin Wei), the status of orphans and vulnerable children, and the abolition of user fees in health and education.

She has taught applied international development at the Kennedy School, Harvard University and at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (with Amina Mohammed). Sievers earned a BA in government from Harvard, where she also did graduate work, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied with Rudi Dornbusch.

Facilitator—Nora Pillard Reynolds approaches this work from her experiences as a non-profit practitioner, educator, and researcher. She serves as director of globalsl.org, a multi-institutional hub supporting ethical global learning and community campus partnerships, hosted at Haverford College. In this role, she leads the Global Engagement Survey, which examines the outcomes of high impact programming, such as engaged learning and study abroad, on global learning competencies, as articulated by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Following her graduation from Villanova University in 2002, Nora co-founded Water for Waslala, an NGO that worked for access to water and sanitation in rural Nicaragua. On April 1, 2016, Water for Waslala was acquired by WaterAid. During the startup phases of Water for Waslala, she also earned her MA in International Development at La Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2004. From 2004-2006, Nora worked as a 1st grade teacher at Potter-Thomas Bilingual School in North Philadelphia through Teach for America while completing her MS in Elementary Education at St. Joseph’s University. She returned to Villanova as assistant director of the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships before leaving to pursue her PhD at Temple University.

Facilitator—Rachel Tomas Morgan is associate director and director of international engagement at the Center for Social Concerns, University of Notre Dame. Rachel designed, implemented, and directs the International Summer Service Learning Program (ISSLP) which she established for the Center in 1998. As assistant professor of the practice and concurrent faculty in the Department of Theology, she oversees the international engagement area of the Center, works with Center colleagues and with faculty across the University on community based learning abroad and consults on international related initiatives across the University, nationally and internationally.

Tomas Morgan teaches global issues and the courses required for the ISSLP. Her teaching and areas of interests include global citizenship, civic and political engagement, cultural competency, global learning and engagement, the intersection of development and international education, ethics and best practice in engaged teaching and learning abroad, and theories, practice and assessment of international service learning. Her most recent publications include co-authored chapters with Paul V. Kollman, C.S.C. in Crossing Boundaries: Tension and Transformation in International Service-Learning (2014) and in Putting the Local in Global Education (2015), and a co-authored paper with Tara Hudson on “Effects of program duration and engagement experiences on education abroad participants’ growth in global perspective” for the American Educational Research Association 2018 annual meeting.

Rachel received her MA in systematic theology from the University of Notre Dame and her BA in religious studies and psychology from Saint Mary’s College. She has previously worked in the fields of international development and natural disaster assistance, secondary education and religious studies, and faith-based social outreach. She serves on the steering committee for globalsl summits and on the board of the Near West Side Neighborhood Organization of South Bend.

Monday, April 16, 1:15—2:30 ETMorris Inn Ballroom

Luncheon Plenary Panel Discussion

Summit registration is required to attend the luncheon plenary—Register here

Rethinking the Way We Care: Institutional Collaborations across Faith-Based Development Organizations

Facilitated by Benjamin Lough, Associate Professor and Masters in Social Work Program Director—University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Many US colleges and universities support orphanages through their global service learning or immersion programs. In addition, well-meaning people donate millions of dollars to orphanages. An estimated 8 million children around the world live in orphanages. 80-90 percent of children living in orphanages have a living parent, many of whom would prefer to care for their children if they had the resources to do so. Most often, it is poverty and one or more other factors, such as disease or natural disasters, that drive families apart. Recipient of a $15M McArthur Foundation Grant for Changing the Way We Care, Catholic Relief Services, together with partner organizations, hopes to change the way society cares for children by reuniting them with supportive and nurturing families and transforming orphanages into family service providers. Plenary panelists will present a brief overview on the research and rationale for family-based care over residential orphanages, discuss the multi-lateral efforts in place among diverse actors to change the way we care about orphans, hear how one campus is addressing this issue and open up discussion about how we can work together to better support vulnerable children and families.

Plenary Panel Bios:

Kim Lamberty is director of university and mission engagement for Catholic Relief Services, where she leads efforts to educate and engage students, faculty, and administration about the work and mission of CRS. A specialist on US Church-based mission and development programs in Haiti, she began working with CRS after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. She frequently leads workshops and has written several articles on best practices in global short-term immersion for education and mission and on parish twinning. She has taught theology at Marymount University and at Catholic Theological Union. She serves on the board of directors of the American Society of Missiology and is an associate editor/peer reviewer for their journal, Missiology: An International Review. Kim authored Eyes from the Outside: Christian Mission in Zones of Violent Conflict. Kim is also co-founder and president of Just Haiti, Inc., a fair trade coffee development program that works in partnership with associations of subsistence coffee growers in Haiti and markets their coffee in the United States. She holds a master of international affairs from Columbia University, an MA in theology from Washington Theological Union, and a DMin in cross-cultural mission from Catholic Theological Union.

Scott Moeschberger is professor of psychology at Taylor University and currently directs the program for Vulnerable and Orphaned Children at Taylor. With his wife Jennifer (a trained counselor), they have worked with dozens of orphan care organizations around the world providing workshops, connecting students, and helping develop program evaluations. Since 2009, Scott has taught the Working with Orphans and Vulnerable Children class at Taylor and has taken the lead in developing an inter-disciplinary academic major/minor related to OVC. He is a past-president of a division in the American Psychological Association with most of his academic research and writing related to peace and reconciliation. He presents regularly at professional conferences world-wide, has written articles and book chapters about social justice and peace psychology and has published works in various publications ranging from Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology to the Handbook for Social Justice in Counseling Psychology. He co-edited Symbols that Bind, Symbols that Divide: The Semiotics of Peace and Conflict and is currently working on various projects related to violence against children. Moeschberger received his PhD from Ball State University.

Justine Williams joined the Better Care Network in September 2017 to develop a new campaign to reduce volunteering in orphanages. She has more than 25 years’ experience working as a communicator and campaigner for charity and public sector organisations in the UK. Prior to joining the Better Care Network she managed the campaigns team at animal welfare charity the RSPCA, delivering a range of advocacy, social and behaviour change campaigns. In 2013, she co-founded the award-winning Cat Population Control Group, a collaborative behaviour change campaign with the aim of maximising the effectiveness of cat neutering efforts in the UK. Justine is currently studying for a Masters in Behaviour Change at the University of Derby.

Facilitator—Benjamin Lough earned his BS in Sociology in 2000 and his MSW in 2003 from Brigham Young University, and his PhD in 2010 from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. He has extensive international research and practice experience, having worked as a senior researcher and resident consultant to the United Nations in Germany, a foreign expert in the People’s Republic of China, an independent consultant to the Department of Human and Social Services of American Samoa, and program evaluator for the Foundation for International and Community Assistance in Armenia and the Republic of Georgia. In addition to considerable research and teaching experience, he also worked as a clinical social worker.

Lough teaches courses in management of human service organizations, foundations of the nonprofit sector, and international social work and development at the School of Social Work. His research interests include: international volunteering and service, community development, nonprofit management, and international social work education. His teaching interests include: nonprofit management, community and organizational practice, international social work, and evaluation of programs and services.

Lough is currently leading a 15-country study to understand how local volunteering contributes to community resilience. Connected to this project, he is the lead research and writer of the 2018 UN State of the World’s Volunteerism Report. In addition, he continues to work with the International Forum for Volunteering in Development to assess the impacts of international volunteering on communities, host organizations, and volunteers. Ben is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Ottawa to understand effective practices of international volunteering, as well as the contributions of these volunteers to national economic and social development.

Faculty members representing multiple institutional types and locations will consider how the seeking of a critical and consequential ideal informs their pedagogical and partnership practice. Grounded in the particular institutions and partnerships that embody their work, they will consider our needs for flourishing diversity and shared commonality. These reflections will return regularly to consideration of their own grounded practice, and how theoretical insights guide partnership and pedagogy. In closing, they will reflect on where the conversations from the 5th GSL Summit, and the scholarship of many years and decades, lead us.

Janice McMillan is associate professor and director of UCT Global Citizenship Programme, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Cape Town. She joined UCT in 1994, first in the Department of Adult Education, and later in the newly merged unit Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching as senior lecturer based in the curriculum and course design team. Since 2010, she has been Convener of UCT Global Citizenship: Leading for Social Justice. Janice’s work has gone beyond UCT working on the South African national CHESP service-learning initiative and as the service-learning coordinator and lecturer for Stanford University’s Bing Overseas Study Program and Centre in Cape Town from 2009-2014.

She has worked with academics and community organizations for over twenty years. Her teaching, research and areas of interest include working with students as educators and facilitators; university-community partnerships; developing a better understanding of social responsiveness in higher education; and working with colleagues on community engaged forms of pedagogy.

Marisol Morales joined Campus Compact in February 2018 as vice president for network leadership. In this role, Morales will provide guidance, inspiration, and practical support to network staff across the country, helping state and regional directors achieve local goals while advancing shared network priorities. She will also lead Campus Compact’s efforts to increase inclusion, equity, and diversity internally and in higher education community engagement.

Morales, founding director of the Office of Civic and Community Engagement at the University of La Verne, comes to the role as an established leader in the field of community engagement. The University of La Verne is a four-year comprehensive Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in Southern California. In this role, she was responsible for leading and developing university-community engagement initiatives in the areas of academic service learning, community engaged scholarship, and co-curricular community engagement.

Prior to joining the University of La Verne, Morales was associate director of the Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning and Community Service Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. Her civic work in Chicago included service on numerous nonprofit boards including Josephinum Academy, the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation, and the Puerto Rican Agenda. In addition, Morales was appointed by former Governor Pat Quinn to serve on the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty and the Illinois Latino Family Commission, where she chaired the Education sub-committee.

Morales earned a BA in Latin American/Latino Studies, an MA/MS in International Public Service Management from DePaul University and is currently pursuing her EdD in Organizational Leadership at the University of La Verne.

Richard Slimbach is professor of global studies in the Department of Global Studies, Sociology, and TESOL, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and has been serving Azusa Pacific University since 1990. Following graduation from Humboldt State University, he picked fruit with migrant farmers and tutored Vietnamese refugees. The tutoring connection led to graduate studies in TESOL, followed by two years dedicated to occupational literacy program development among Muslim cycle rickshaw drivers in Hyderabad, India. Slimbach’s PhD in International and Comparative Education included ethnographic field research on non-formal educational development among the Baloch people in Karachi, Pakistan.

Her research concentrates on youth civic development and international community development. Her current research activities examine the role of black youth participation and inclusion in 4H programs in the US, the role of youth engagement and social movements of young adults in Central American and West Africa, and the inclusion and role of youth in agriculture as a form of engagement in the West Indies (Trinidad). Webster received her B.S. from the University of Florida and an MS and PhD from Michigan State University.

Eric served as executive director of a community-driven global nonprofit organization, Amizade, and taught on human rights, transdisciplinary research methods, and globalization in global studies programs at Arizona State University and Providence College.

With a PhD in international development from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Eric has worked in cross-cultural development practice and education in Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Tanzania, and throughout the United States. He co-founded both globalsl.org and the Global Engagement Survey (GES), initiatives that advance best practices in global learning and cooperative development within community-campus partnerships.